Ugh! Why can't people READ!!!!!

I don't know why I bother turning in 100-page reports with previous psychiatric evaluations, parent report, history, etc. It is clear that no one bothers to read it. I got Kanga's "Treatment Plan" and "Mental Health Assessment" from the Residential Treatment Center (RTC). There are errors throughout: the diagnosis is wrong, the social history is wrong, her history of medication and symptoms are wrong. Her goals are just off, they are almost appropriate and reflective of what we discussed over the phone but not quite good enough.

JJJ, when my son was discharged from his day treatment program in January, the 4-page discharge summary was full of errors, including his medications on discharge, the name of his school, family history and previous medication reactions, even though we had given all this info on admission. I merely edited it and faxed it back. The psychiatric hospital provided me with a corrected version.

This happened to us as well. I sent it back to psychiatric hospital with all the errors circled in red along with ANOTHER copy of parent report and other doctor reports.

I addressed it to the head of the psychiatric hospital. All I got back from them was a form letter thanking me for my input! OH BROTHER! Kinda scary when the report they made was sent to all of Aly's attending docs and they were then questioning ME about the errors in the report. Oy vey!!!

We fired the psychiatrist when we got her discharge statement full of errors. She was not only the treating doctor in the hospital but my son's private psychiatrist. It was not pleasant to discover that the woman we had been paying for over a year had it so wrong. I believe her collection of misinformation was a factor in her treatment decisions.

The next psychiatrist got an outline of family medical history and my son's personal history, including drugs and doses tried. It was about 5 pages.

I am osrry. We had this when difficult child went IN to the psychiatric hospital. In spite of an outline AND executive summary of his Parent Report, they got it all messed up. I had the therapist let me read it, then got a red pen out to make my corrections. she was a bit upset that I had "messed with" the official copy, but I wanted it right.

Then the dhs person reported, her report was about another family, they didn't even get our NAME right - the last name.

Then the discharge summary was wrong.

It was very frustrating.

I suggest you make corrections, fax it back and DEMAND (as nicely as will work) that it be changed, right down to treatment goals.

Yep Sarah, 100 pages, 111 to be exact: 52 pages of doctor evaluations (psychological, neuropsysh, psychiatrist), 37 page IEP, 5 page history of treatments, 17 page parent report written per our state's mental health application guidelines. Prior to having to finding for Residential Treatment Center (RTC) funding, I had a short (6 page) parent report that I gave to each new professional, but the grant required so much info and the Residential Treatment Center (RTC) required a copy of everything. My point is if they are going to require the info, they need to read it.

When difficult child started falling apart last Summer, his pediatrician doctor said, "I don't know what this is. I am going to treatment the symptoms, I THINK it is anxiety. Here is Zoloft." I asked for a referral. No way am I going to medicate with Zoloft on a "I don't know, I think" Finally get to the referring pediatrician doctor (specializes in learning disorders, ADD, ADHD, ect). The new pediatrician doctor reads the referral to me, "He is being referred for ADHD." I said, "NO, we do not know what is wrong - nothing has been diagnosis yet." So this new doctor asks me several questions and ends with, "He does not have ADHD." Right - take it off the record.

On to psychiatric hospital family counseling session. SW reads in his record, "I see he has ADHD" "WHAT? No, he does not - take it out of the record!" So, on to neuology appointment, "He has ADHD?" "NO, take it out the the record!"

I have since called new doctor's nurse to make sure it has now been taken off his record. Once you make the request to correct the records, ask to read the records as now stands to make sure corrections are made.

Our difficult child's have enough issues, they do not need to be medicated or treated as having a diagnosis that has not been officially diagnosed. I wouldn't mind if difficult child does get diagnosis with ADHD, but don't medicate as such until the proper diagnosis has been made!

I also have found that irrating as it may seem, I am enjoying the docs (my eye doctor for example) who will verbably review the health history upon every visit - I want them to say the history (don't ask me to) - that way I know they are thinking about my child and if they say something that is wrong, I can correct it. I want to know what they know. I also can know that they have an understanding of what may be going on (do they really listen when I talk?)

Well, at 111 pages, I would be tempted to have it bound in chapters with summaries! And yes, I'd send them corrections as well. Skip the tongue lashing they so generously deserve, and send it with a cover letter "Dear sir: Enclosed please find a corrected copy of your report with citations noted as to where to find the correct information in the reports earlier supplied to you at your request."

Hmm. A hundred and eleven pages. Gee, I can't THINK why they didn't read it all thoroughly.

OK, enough sarcasm. I know you need to be thorough, but a strong suggestion for the future - summarise it down to one page. It's not easy, but it can make a HUGE difference. Of course you give them the whole thing so there is no excuse for them getting anything wrong, but a summary as well, in plainspeak, will help.

For example - "You have the detailed report. In summary, this child has had a series of diagnoses, the most recent one being .... This affects the child as follows:..., ..., and .... For this, the following medications have been prescribed: [list them]. Past problems with other medications include: [list past problems and the reactions to each one]. You are most likely to experience the following problems: [list them]. In the event of these problems occurring, we require immediate contact regardless of the time. If you are unsure of the best course of action in a situation or just want more information, please feel free to call."

I did something like this at the beginning of each new school year for difficult child 3's new teacher. They had his records, they had t he communication book, but a quick summary helped because the teacher had enough to do that day, there was going to be no time to read the entire file.

I suspect most of the time, the long reports are simply not read. Ever. They take a verbal handover, maybe read a referring doctor's letter, and that's about it.

Think about it - the average person, when unpacking a new piece of equipment, doesn't generally stop to read the manual before you go over and plug it in to see what it does.

Why else would we be so familiar with the phrase, "If all else fails, read the manual"?

I summarized each section of my parent report. Our kids are so complex that they come with a great deal of information. I do know that schools took copies of the entire education section, psychiatrist copied the whole darned book, therapist took social/emotional hx & psyhciatric hx.

I haven't a clue who read what. I do know that it helped me keep track.

ANNOYING! When my son was in psychiatric hospital, I got so tired of telling the same history over and over again despite the fact that everything was in the file. My husband and I would joke that they were testing us to see if we kept the story straight!

Good idea to fax the corrections, of course it is more work for you. I hope they go to the trouble of fixing them and giving you a corrected copy!